“Must Project Managers be technically savvy?” This topic always seems to cause quite a stir. While some believe that all you need to manage a project is a PMP certification, others are convinced that you can't successfully manage a software development project unless you truly understand the intricacies of the product.

I agree! To be an effective Project Manager, you must know the ins and outs of your solution. You must be capable of designing and developing the solution yourself.

Here are 5 fundamental project management tasks that Project Managers can't accomplish unless they have a strong technical background and truly understand the particulars of their product.

Estimating Effort

In order to create a project plan, you must be able to estimate how much effort is required to complete all of the required tasks. Needless to say, you can't estimate effort unless you truly understand what's involved in designing and implementing those features.

Unless you understand what's required to reach 5-9 reliability, you can't assess how much effort is required to achieve this non-functional requirement. Unless you clearly understand how to write Java Server Pages, you can't predict how much development effort is required to transform an HTML prototype to set of fully functional JSP pages.

Scheduling Tasks

Imagine that someone hands you a list of activities that need to be completed for a given project, along with the overall effort. Could you schedule the tasks in a logical sequence? Should the developers start with the presentation, the business, or the data storage layer? Which comes first when working on a presentation layer: the HTML, the JavaScript, the CSS, or the servlets?

A Project Manager must be able to schedule activities in a logical sequence. If you can't determine which activities must come first and which ones can be done in parallel, you can't put together a project schedule.

Assessing Risk

Imagine the following scenario. Your product is scheduled to be released in 5 days. The QA team discovers a defect in the API through a series of CLI tests. After carefully examining the problem, you realize that you're developers have been working around this defect for months.

Given that you're only 5 days away from releasing your product, should you fix this defect or document the workaround? At this point in time, how risky is it to modify an API that's being used? How confident are you that the developer can fix this API in the given timeframe? What's the likelihood that changing this API will break the modules calling it? Should you fix the defect now, or release the product and address the bug in a patch release?

Unless you've seen the code behind this interface, you can't answer any of these questions yourself. You need to ask your developers. You're not the decision maker. They are.

Participating In Customer Meetings

Customer meetings always end up in technical discussions. Unfortunately, if you can't speak intelligently about your technology, you can't add any value to such meetings. You're not participating; you're strictly listening, and perhaps taking notes. Sooner or later, your customers will find themselves contacting your developers directly. “Why contact the Project Manager if he can't give me an answer? I may as well go straight to the source.”

Ensuring Nothing Falls Through The Cracks

Let's face it. You never get as much time as you'd like to plan your projects. What's important is not that you get it perfect the first time around. What's important is that you can catch the tasks that fell through the cracks before it's too late.

If you don't know what's required to complete your solution, you won't be able to identify all the overlooked activities. They'll either be pointed out by your developers, or simply omitted forever.

In Short…

To be an effective Project Manager, you must be capable of designing and developing the solution yourself. Otherwise, you have two options. You can either (a) ask others to make decisions for you, or (b) simply pretend you know what you're talking about. In the first case, you're a Project Coordinator. In the second case, you're a Project Mangler.

Luc Richard holds an MBA with a major in high technology. For the past 10 years, he's been managing the development of software applications. He is the founder of The Project Mangler (http://www.projectmangler.com), an online resource that publishes free articles, stories, and other ready-to-use tools to help developers, team leaders and managers deliver software projects on time, according to specs, and within budget.

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Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

Whilst there is a lot of lip service given to innovation, the reality is that it often results from competitors making significant gains – competitors who themselves have had to be innovative to challenge existing market leaders. Good examples are i) New Coke, forced into action when it lost market share to Pepsi and ii) IBM forced to change as a result of Microsoft.

An irony is that once innovative companies become less so when they have found their Golden Fleece. Finding a killer product forces a firm to concentrate on marketing and improving that product and results in a degree of parochialism and path dependency. Again, a good example is Microsoft – after Windows 95, innovation has been less significant; growth has resulted less from innovation and more from buying up innovative companies.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) fromhttp://www.managing-creativity.com.

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com.

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Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

However, all too often the concept of innovation is intricately linked with radical change. In fact, the opposite is true:

a) Most successful innovations take advantage of existing technology, are moderately new to market (not radically new), support existing behaviours, support customer needs and save money.

b) Radical innovation is the result of incremental change. Small changes can have radical effects and when considered over time, cause radical shifts. An example of this is looking at an old photo – very minute changes make big differences over long periods. An examination of any artists work will show incremental changes for periods before new knowledge or other inputs lead to radical shifts, which are then experimented with incrementally for periods.

c) Radical innovations are actually the result of invisible periods of incremental change and previous periods of radical change. The Internet resulted from the connectivity of the PC, which developed out of the mainframe, which owes its existence to the solid state transistor, which evolved from the earliest cathode ray tubes and so forth.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) fromhttp://www.managing-creativity.com.

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com.

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As a manager our role is to:

1. Establish the vision, or our contribution to the vision.

2. Establish the plan and forecast for our management contribution, be it $1million or $1billion.

3. Gain endorsement of the plan and forecast, by the vision holders.

4. Manage the plan and reality to the vision-contribution.

This is very simple on paper.

Assuming we have achieved the first three, let’s focus on the fourth as it is vitally important.

Firstly, too many managers make a subtle twist here and manage the deliverables to the plan forgetting that the vision is the ultimate goal! To tweak the plan as we go, means we may readily exceed our contribution to the vision within the time frame. This is a wonderful over achievement, there to for the having, if our eyes, ears and hearts are open to the possibility!

My client had a plan to deliver sales of budget for the year. Nearing the end of Q3 they found they had exceeded budget substantially and could set a new target 25% over the previous budget. All it required to be done was to continue to sell at the same levels. There had been no product withdrawals by the competition, no category killers by their own company, just an extraordinary and consistent performance.

Her focus was on the vision not the plan, the plan would have enabled her to relax in Q4 and focus on a killer Q1. The vision meant she could change the contribution now.

Secondly, compliance is the ability to have others deliver the vision. Our client’s staff can be joined into the vision, be left out but still be expected to deliver it.

IT consultants have delivered huge IT project to enable technological advances in work processes for years. The average to poor ROI projects may have great IT but do not readily fit the culture or the creative energy of the company.

Again a subtle but profound twist occurs. We focus on the technology to deliver the results and serve its requirements, rather than finding the model of delivery and have the technology serve it!

The business model is established and the technology serves it, and example.

A consultant to QANTAS found they had over 100 interfaces for the IT group to maintain and support – an enormous technical feat for their staff numbers! The issue arose as IT was too slow in partnering with the business units in making the decisions about the technology to support their initiatives.

He simplified the process of interaction to a one page intranet form and 24 hours for low budget projects; and, one page intranet form and rapid interaction for more complex projects. The businesses found it easy to engage IT and IT added value by delivering better technical help and support for their initiatives.

As a result no new interfaces were introduced, and, many were retired or relegated to less essential operational areas. Millions of dollars and man hours were also saved.

Is your management two dimensional and falling over for you, or three dimensional, challenging, interesting and dynamic?

This article may be reproduced in printed or web format, provided the resource box below is included.

Rosemary Johnston is a professional corporate and personal coach. Working with executives from some of Australia's largest and most successful companies for over 15 years.

Rosemary's new book, "How To Develop Your Leadership Style and Skills to Take Charge of Your Career and Life" is now available to download at her web site. Read about how you can share some of the success Rosemary has had coaching leaders in Australian blue chip companies. http://www.leadershipfirst.com.au

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This article relates to the Senior/Top Level management of an organization, and how a huge vision of directional change translates into the day-to-day operation of the company. AlphaMeasure defines senior management as the team of individuals at the highest level who have the day-to-day responsibilities of operating the organization. For many employees, this competency will target the managers occupying positions above their immediate supervisors. This competency covers topics such as strategic leadership, corporate vision, and corporate direction. Evaluating this competency can be especially useful in understanding how much your workforce favors the present direction of the organization.

This short story, Senior Management and Directional Change, is part of AlphaMeasure's compilation, Tales from the Corporate Frontlines. It illustrates how undertaking a drastic directional change within a company requires planning, engagement, and honest evaluation by the top levels of management, those who are ultimately responsible for the implementation of the changes.

Anonymous Submission

When a company decides to change direction in a major way to increase profits and change with the prevailing business climate, change often begins at the top. Our company decided to change its marketing strategy significantly, nearly two years ago. Our main product was extremely service oriented, so it made sense to focus marketing efforts on the Internet, rather than the time-honored methods of TV ads and heavy direct mail.

This meant strategic restructuring- nothing drastic at the worker level, or even at middle management. But at the top level, there was a definite lack of expertise in the area of Internet marketing. Some on the executive team who were most responsible for day- to -day marketing operations not only disagreed with the decision to change strategy; they were also extremely vocal about their reservations.

We waited patiently to see how the parent company executive team would handle the situation. It was no surprise when the objectors were asked to leave. After their departure, responsibilities were restructured to give those in charge of the change maximum resources with which to accomplish the task. As the work proceeded, streamlining eliminated various positions, and certain workers were given responsibility for projects quite unlike anything they'd worked on before. Some training was offered, but apparently not enough. After a few years, it became obvious that the vision for change in marketing strategy was unsuccessful.

A team was assembled to investigate why the effort had failed. It was determined that top level management simply did not have the in depth knowledge and expertise in Internet marketing that was required. The company had removed the workers that were deemed non-essential to the plan, but this was not enough. Top management had not pressed hard enough to properly train those left to handle the transition. Expecting middle management and below to know and handle what the top level did not had deeply wounded the entire transition effort. Our investigation team determined that there was a genuine lack of experience and recommended intense training and education efforts as well as the hiring of highly experienced personnel in key areas. These recommendations were followed, but not before our company learned a tough lesson about top management's role in turning a broad vision for change into day to day reality.

© 2005 AlphaMeasure, Inc. - All Rights Reserved

This article may be reprinted, provided it is published in its entirety, includes the author bio information, and all links remain active.

Measure. Report. Improve your organization with an AlphaMeasure employee satisfaction survey.

Josh Greenberg is President of AlphaMeasure, Inc.

AlphaMeasure provides organizations of all sizes a powerful web based method for measuring employee satisfaction, determining employee engagement, and increasing employee retention.

Launch your employee surveys with AlphaMeasure.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Josh_Greenberg

People buy from you, offer help, and grant rewards based on trust. Here are ways to increase your success by creating trust. While we do most of these things, missing even one of them can ruin it all.

Be Dependable

* Deliver what you promise and promise only what you can deliver. Report delays immediately.

* Be on time. Leave early for appointments. Set realistic deadlines allowing for the unexpected.

* Show courtesy by returning phone calls.

* Be predictable. Use self control: anger repels and scares others.

Listen

* Show interest and respect by paying attention to what the other person is saying.

* Ask questions. Then make it easy to answer them.

* Accept the other person's ideas as valid, even if you disagree. Avoid listening through filters of what you want to hear.

* Be open to new ideas. Realize that you could always know more.

Be Honest

* Tell the truth. Lies demean the teller more than they fool the listener.

* Act with integrity. Make decisions as if you had to deal with all of the consequences, treat others with respect, and choose actions that add value for everyone.

Provide Data

* Tell stories that show past achievements. Quote compliments.

* Collect data. Keep a victory file of successes, testimonial letters, and other good news. If necessary, ask for testimonials, references, and compliments.

* Create data. Plan good deeds that lead to complimentary stories.

Take the High Road

* Help others perform at their best. Give without expecting a return favor.

* Do good things because that makes the world a better place.

* Show courage during uncertainty.

* Seek the good in others.

* Trust others, because this shows that you expect to be trusted.

IAF Certified Professional Facilitator and author Steve Kaye works with leaders who want to hold effective meeting. His innovative workshops have informed and inspired people nationwide. His facilitation produces results that people will support. Call 714-528-1300 or visit his web site for over 100 pages of valuable ideas. Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.stevekaye.com

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Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

Incubation and Insight

Two of the most common terms in the field of creativity include Eureka! Or Aha! Often these terms are used to describe that moment when an idea has occurred “out of the blue.” This whole set of terminology and the inherent assumptions are misleading.

a) Ideas do not occur out of the blue. The mind works on various problems at various cognitive levels. Aha or Eureka is the moment when solutions to problems become conscious. If Newton did discover gravity while sitting under an apple tree, it is because his mind was engaged with the topic of planetary motion and the memes of his times.

b) The process of allowing the mind to work on various problems is calle incubation. Allowing incubation to take place results in richer solutions than if time pressure were used to elicit responses. But time pressure also has benefits – it increases output thus leading to higher probabilities of quality ideas emerging.

c) Aha and Eureka are terms that trigger bad thinking. Insight is better.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop MBA, is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kal_Bishop

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. There are other useful definitions for both, for example, creativity can be measured according to the number of ideas produced, the diversity of those ideas and the novelty of those ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

Generating Better Ideas

One valuable debate is whether creativity can be developed and improved – or in other words, is it possible to generate better ideas? There are a number of reasons to believe that creativity can be developed, some of which include:

a) It is always possible to increase the number of ideas, the number of diverse ideas and the number of novel ideas.

b) Simply being prolific increases the probability of generating better ideas. Quality is closely related to sheer quantity. Creators tend to produce their best work when they are being most prolific.

c) Better idea tend to occur later on in an idea generating session, when the mind has overcome blocks, tends to produce ideas with less evaluation, when the mind consciously recognises path dependency and attempts to frame break etc.

d) Incremental goals produce more output than simply “do your best” strategies.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) fromhttp://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop MBA, is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kal_Bishop

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

One area of note in the commercialisation phase is the Hype Cycle. The Hype Cycle is one model that helps measure, monitor, benchmark and predict the reaction to an innovation. This is important as innovations, by their very nature, raise expectations, sometimes to unrealistic levels. A good example is the Internet boom – where traffic supposedly “doubled every hundred days.”

According to the Gartner group, there are five stages to the Hype Cycle:

a) Technology trigger. The breakthrough that leads to the innovation.

b) The rapid climb that results from hype, PR and high expectations.

c) The equally rapid descent as high expectations are not met.

d) A gradual climb of expectations as people realise that the innovation has benefits.

e) The plateau (that declines over the long term) as the innovation becomes mainstream.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) fromhttp://www.managing-creativity.com.

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop MBA, is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kal_Bishop

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

Franklin (2003) reported that many innovations fail due to a lack of focus. This sentiment is echoed by Doug Richards (Words of wisdom from the dragon’s mouth, Financial Times, 7th May 2005) a venture capitalist who stated that what he really wants to know is what problem the product solves. This stresses the often overlooked but important part of the creativity and innovation process – problem identification.

Ask twenty different people what the problem is and you will likely get twenty different answers. Each answer opens up a pathway that can be explored for ideas.

Taking time to identify problems exactly decreases misunderstandings, increases awareness of multiple dimensions, enhances interpersonal relationships and allows all opinions to be heard.

Developing and commercialising products addressed to specific problems reduces the occurrence of failure and the related cost. Further, it saves the cost of having to retrace steps and re-engineer.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com.

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kal_Bishop

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

The quantity and quality of the idea pool is important.

The Economist (2003b) states that 3000 bright ideas are needed for 100 worthwhile projects, which in turn will be winnowed down to four development programmes for new products. And four such development programmes are the minimum needed to stand any chance of getting one winner.

Generating a large idea pool of quality ideas is actually not that difficult. There are numerous approaches:

a) One of the more useful definitions of creativity is that it is a large set of ideas, a large set of diverse ideas and large set of novel ideas. Focusing on each of these opens up various pathways.

b) Separating creative from critical thinking. Creative thinking is unrestricted, uninhibited, unrestrained, imaginative, carefree, rebellious, and revolutionary. Once a large set of ideas are generated, critical thinking can be used, which is focused, feasible, conservative and practical.

c) One of the more useful methods is simply to be prolific. Some of the most successful creations have been produced when the creator was being prolific. Being prolific trounces over the blocks that prevent output and quickly builds up competencies that are required for truly exceptional work.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) fromhttp://www.managing-creativity.com.

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop MBA, is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kal_Bishop

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

However, no matter how good an idea, how good the selection process or how perfect the development and commercialisation of the product, sometimes all that is needed is time for the product to come into its own.

A good example is the electric car. In the early 20th century the electric car scored highly on measurements such technical superiority and environmental friendliness and in New York fleets of electric taxis carried passengers across the city. At the time the internal combustion engine was cranky and unreliable yet it eventually usurped it’s rival (Franklin, 2003). The prospect of diminishing and high oil prices and environmental concerns are resulting in the return of the electric car.

The time factor is one of the elements of the S-curve – a model for determining the impediments that a product may face on its route to commercial success.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com.

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kal_Bishop

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

The mere definition of innovation implies a break from the past, something new. However, one of the crucial aspects that many innovators fail to consider is the power of emotional attachment to existing products, methods and practices.

Two good examples include New Coke and British Airways.

Forced to address the issue of losing market share to Pepsi, Coke came up with New Coke only to find that existing customers equated Coke with America itself. Not only was Coke a symbol of America but Coke grew up with America in the Twentieth Century. It was as American as arrogance and Thanksgiving. Changing it meant tampering with people’s identity.

British Airways re-branded itself by taking away the national flag on its tailfin and modernising with designs of arts and crafts from around the world. Much to the chagrin of its customers and accountants. The outcry caused BA to rethink and revert back to its former true Brit self.

Emotional attachment is one of the factors that can be measured along the S-curve, a model for predicting the practical impediments that may inhibit successful innovations.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) fromhttp://www.managing-creativity.com.

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop MBA, is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kal_Bishop

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

Specialisation versus Generalisation

One of the topics often debated is the benefit of specialisation over generalisation. To consistently generate a large number of good ideas, is it better to specialise within a field or to vary knowledge amongst a variety of fields?

Sternberg (1999), along with other theorists, argues that in-depth knowledge of a domain does not always lead to good ideas but such knowledge does seem to be a necessary condition for them. Glover (1989) identified only three notably works produced before year ten of a composer’s career, indicating that substantial practice or establishment in the field was initially required. West (1995) points out that the vast majority of gains are made with the further application of what is already known.

However, Einstein said that the hardest thing he had to do was unlearn what he had learned.

Others counter that specialisation leads to path dependency and parochialism.

Still others point out that what is important is a range of tacit knowledge – experience in multiple fields that allows intellectual cross pollination, that is the raw material for good idea generation.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com/

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Kal Bishop MBA,is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com/

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